Hong Kong considers itself to be a developed economy. Yet the city’s shapers remain unable to adopt measures towards improving the urban environment and its air quality. Antiquated and imbedded attitudes to urban space management leave it on a par with other Chinese cities.

THE SMOKING PRECEDENT

Approximately 64,000 people in the United States die prematurely from heart and lung disease every year due to particulate air pollution, more people than die each year in car accidents. (image: George Kashouh)

For many decades it became increasingly evident that second hand cigarette smoke (SHS), resulting from both exhaled mainstream smoke and the smoke drifting from a lit cigarette was a serious health risk, both to those who smoked and to those who did not. The impacts are particularly severe for children. Yet despite the facts vested politics and economics made protecting the public from the serious health impacts of tobacco a long drawn out battle. ​Finally, there has been an incredible shift in the social norm toward smoke free environments. First enacted in 1982, it took until 2007 for the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap. 371), to ban smoking to include indoor workplaces, most public places including restaurants, Internet cafés, public lavatories, beaches and most public parks. It's barely raised as an issue today.

There is now a slow realisation that the air quality inside buildings can affect not only user’s health but also productivity and happiness. The same can be said for outside air quality and the high costs of remedial health care far outweigh the preventative costs. Awareness of the health issues from emissions should be of particular concern in congested city street conditions found in Hong Kong, not to mention the psychological stress resulting from noise and safety issues. Emissions include particulates from diesel engines, NOx, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and benzene. The 2014 Hong Kong Emission Inventory Report indicates that the road transport sector is the largest local air pollution source, especially 60% of carbon monoxide emission comes from transportation. Yet, just like the smoking revolution, change is slow in coming.

Brake wear has been recognized as one of the most important non-exhaust traffic-related sources, representing total traffic-related PM10 emissions between 11 and 21 %. (image: aa1car.com)

It's not just exhaust fumes that are likely hurting us; brake dust, tyre fragments and even tiny bits of road can get into the air and these make up a similar proportion of the airborne particulate matter (PM) resulting from vehicle use as exhaust emissions. In a study published recently in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the researchers described how vehicle-emitted metals such as copper, iron and manganese interact with acidic sulfate-rich particles already in the air to produce a toxic aerosol. ​A recent study estimated that approximately 64,000 people in the United States die prematurely from heart and lung disease every year due to particulate air pollution, far more people than die each year in car accidents. Among children, air pollutants are associated with increased acute respiratory illness, increased incidence of respiratory symptoms and infections, episodes of longer duration, and lowered lung function.

WHAT CAN REDUCE ROADSIDE POLLUTION

Microscopic airborne tyre particles. Several countries and regions have implemented or are in the process of implementing programs to improve tyre efficiency and safety. (image: microlabgallery.com)

The installation of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPmSs) could become an effective strategy to reduce particulate pollution. (image: ae01.alicdn.com)

We need to start paying more attention to air pollution caused by tyre, brake and road wear, especially because it won't be solved by a switch to plug-in hybrids or electric vehicles. Brake pad dust may come to be reduced through electric vehicle adoption because these mostly utilize regenerative braking, which doesn't use brake pads most of the time, but tyre and road dust will remain a problem.​Several countries and regions have implemented or are in the process of implementing programs to improve tyre efficiency and safety. Rating and labelling programs along with drawing up compliance standards are important first steps, enabling both consumers to select, and ensuring manufacturers offer, more efficient tyres. The installation of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPmSs) as a safety and efficiency measure should become an effective strategy in reducing wear, aided by the global spread of the technology.

Cross Harbour Tunnel. Stop-start driving in city centres creates higher pollution levels. Traffic pollution models could be under-estimating emissions by as much as 60%, in areas where congestion occurs for a large part of the day. (checkerboardhill.com)

We can ask the question “what are brakes for”? The answer has to be “to allow vehicles to go faster”. Continued improvements in braking systems since the invention of the motor vehicle have allowed drivers to accelerate and decelerate rapidly, to such a point that traffic management in the last decades has been focused on limiting speeds and managing smooth flows. Both fuel consumption and exhaust emissions vary significantly with variability of vehicle speed. A steady speed is the key to reducing the emissions of harmful pollutants. Whilst, lower speeds require less intense wear on brakes, driver behaviour in minimising unnecessary braking and avoiding excessively rapid acceleration are key environmental features. As such, traffic management features such as “stop lights and speed bumps can adversely impact air quality and effective use of traffic signal systems to improve air quality requires visionary design and committed institutional coordination that appears beyond most governments at present.

Pedestrianisation of city centres began to gain popularity in Europe about 40 years ago and is now a feature of most developed city-centre plans. The sort of measures used include the shading of pathways, attractive paving materials, use of materials to dissipate heat, integration with public transport stations, landscaping, and better pedestrian corridor links with major destinations. By contrast, pedestrians in Hong Kong, similar to those in developing countries, are generally poorly served, tending to be controlled rather than provided for. Footways are often not provided or when they do exist are often too narrow, inaccessible and behind barriers, impacted by street furniture, in a poor state of repair or taken over by traders and parked vehicles. The consequence is that pedestrians are often forced to walk in the highway pavement. This is not only unsafe but also contributes to impair traffic flow and consequently increases emissions. Provision of adequate pedestrian facilities improves air quality by keeping traffic away from sensitive, high exposure locations and by encouraging walking as the preferred mode for short trips. The evidence is that integrated planning of urban land use, urban public transport, and traffic management is the best basis for improving air quality in the most sensitive locations.

WHAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING?

The number of vehicles in Hong Kong increased by 30% from 524 000 in 2003 to 681,000 in 2013. During the same period, the average car journey speed in urban areas dropped by about 11% from 25.6 km/h in 2003 to 22.7 km/h in 2013.(image: BWPI)

In trying to tackle vehicle emission pollution there is really only one solution and that is to reduce the number of vehicle journeys, particularly in densely populated areas. Improved vehicle fuel efficiency tends in fact to stimulate more total vehicle travel, which also exacerbates other transportation problems. Traffic management aimed at increasing flows further encourages private vehicle use. The Hong Kong Transport Department recognises this and states a “reduction in vehicular traffic” as its primary ‘Environmental Objective’. It targets rationalizing public transport services to improve accessibility in helping to reduce vehicular traffic and mitigate air pollution. All well and good. However, the ten years between 2003 and 2013 saw the number of road vehicles in Hong Kong increase by 30% from 524 000 to 681 000.

Many people think of air pollution as an environmental or health issue. But roadside pollution is a traffic issue. The Transport Bureau responsibility is to effectively manage road use, reduce congestion and promote safety as well as continuing to support environmental improvement measures in transport-related areas, but unfortunately, they put traffic efficiency over pollution as a priority and this must change. During the above period, the average car journey speed in urban areas in fact dropped by about 11% from 25.6 km/h in 2003 to 22.7 km/h in 2013, so they are getting nothing right.

The Hong Kong Government released "Public Engagement Document" on Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) and the upcoming pilot project in central. (image: erphk.hk)

It seems the government is well aware of all the issues and potential solutions, yet has no stomach for the fight. The 2014 Report from the Transport Advisory Committee (TAC) on road traffic congestion in Hong Kong focused unsurprisingly on the economic impacts to the city of increased car journey times, but it did highlight the fact that “traffic congestion will continue to erode the environment, sustainability, quality of life and competitiveness of the city and that immediate action is warranted”. That was more than 3 years ago and simply lead to the 3rd resurrection of the ‘Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) Pilot Scheme for discussion, a congestion charging proposal first muted more than 30 years ago.

With limited land available in Hong Kong, the primary vision should be to reduce road capacity in the urban centres and enhance the pedestrian environment, connectivity and urban air quality as a direct means to enhancing the public health and wellbeing. An immediate multi-faceted approach which could be easily implemented and at limited cost to the public at large is required. It could include ERP but must also focus on a clear programme of street rationalisation and pedestrianisation; removal of on-street parking; reduction of meter parking along with significant and deterrent increases in meter parking charges; an increased level of traffic penalties; increased resources applied to enforcement; along with the introduction of IT in such enforcement.

Hong Kong needs to follow the example of leading world cities by improving the efficient use of street space by first reducing trip generation rather than increasing vehicle capacity.

Such measures require little capital cost, can be both immediately and flexibly applied and may have significant impact on urban air quality and public health. The provision of parking generates vehicle journeys. On-street parking is hostile to pedestrians and is provided at the expense of other, more productive space investments. Where urban density is high, such as in Central District, parking is extremely capital intensive, making its cost substantial. Most of all, the provision of parking tacitly subsidizes automobile ownership since cars are parked most of the time and ownership is easier if a car can be cheaply and reliably stored when it is not being driven. Removal of on-street parking should be a simple and low cost first step to congestion reduction.

​The era of the internal combustion engine and roadside pollution are nearing an end, just as the steam engine and cigarette smoking had their day. As the youth of today like to say, “Just do it already”!

Barry Wilson is a Landscape Architect, urbanist and university lecturer. His practice, Barry Wilson Project Initiatives, has been tackling urbanisation issues in Hong Kong and China for over 20 years. (www.initiatives.com.hk).

​Overseas, the last decades have seen a complete re-evaluation of the benefits of the motor vehicle in overseas cites and after years of implementing street widening and traffic engineering schemes at vast cost to the taxpayer, it has been realised that building more roads encourages more traffic volume, which causes further congestion whilst decreasing the value, character and liveability of our cities. Strong movements now prevail in which streets are increasingly restricted to fast moving traffic and the priority returning to pedestrian and cycle use , both in the inner cities and in suburban residential areas.

Rijksstraatweg, Haren, Holland. (image: Woon Haren)

Shared Space

​​Shared Space is a European project that aims to develop new policies and new methods for an integral approach of the planning of public space for which man and his surroundings are taken as the basis rather than the motor car. The philosophy at the base of the new policy is implemented in seven pilot projects.

​Drachen Laweiplein​The space was unattractive to pedestrians and bicyclists, and tended to cause long traffic delays and congestion. The accident history was poor, especially for bicyclists.

​​In 2002, the junction was remodelled.

​The improvements in capacity of the busy junction, the reductions in delays and in serious accidents, and the remarkable changesin the interaction between all road users in what has now become a lively public space would suggest that shared space principles may be of value in rethinking some of our busier streetscapes.